Many people visiting the region for spring migration may think that once The Biggest Week In American Birding is over that the birding winds down and the BSBO team finally gets to take a well-deserved break. This, however, is only somewhat true. While it is true that the festival is planned to coincide with peak spring songbird migration, the research team and its volunteers are still out in the marsh daily, collecting data until the first week of June.
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This year in particular, along with operating one of the nation’s largest banding stations, the research team also accomplished some great feats during spring migration.

​Throughout spring, the BSBO research team has been affixing radio-transmitters to particular bird species to monitor their movements after release utilizing the Motus wildlife tracking system (motus.org). These deployments are in collaboration with Powdermill Avian Research Center in Pennsylvania (powdermillarc.org), who are investigating the effects rehabilitated migratory birds may incur after window and building collisions. Acting as a control site for uninjured migrant birds, the BSBO research station was able to deploy 11 transmitters on five species of migrants that are commonly found and rehabbed after collisions along the Lake Erie shoreline (American Woodcock, Wood Thrush, Ovenbird, White-throated Sparrow, and Magnolia Warbler).

Once deployed, these transmitters send out a specific radio signature that is picked up by Motus receiver towers positioned throughout North America. When a tagged bird flies within range of these towers, its signature is recorded and uploaded to Motus, allowing researches to see when and where these birds are traveling.  

​Through this collaborative effort the BSBO research team has been able to contribute data to an issue that millions of birds face every year as they traverse the landscape. The information gathered from the movements of these birds will hopefully paint a clearer picture on any immediate or long-lasting effects from collisions and – as an additional benefit – give us a better idea of how migrants are traveling across the lakeshore and Lake Erie. 

​Along with supplying data, this has been an excellent opportunity for the BSBO research team to strengthen its knowledgebase by now including radio telemetry. This is an incredible skillset for us to acquire as BSBO's research and conservation departments begin to explore the Motus system and its application for monitoring birds using the airspace above Lake Erie. 

​While simultaneously operating one of the nation’s largest banding stations, the BSBO research team also hosted a North American Banding Council (NABC) (nabanding.net) certification session, evaluating nine candidates at the levels of Trainer, Bander, and Assistant. The mission of the NABC is to promote sound and ethical bird-banding practices and techniques. To accomplish this, the NABC has developed educational and training materials, including manuals on general banding and an accompanying three-level certification process. While becoming NABC certified is not a requirement to handle or band birds, it is a great accomplishment to achieve and promotes a high standard among bird banders.

​​Two years ago, Ashli Gorbet and Ryan Jacob of BSBO’s research department, achieved the NABC level of Bander. Following that certification, they traveled to Powdermill in 2018 to be evaluated at the Trainer level and attained this status as well. This ranking put Ashli and Ryan among a select group of bird banders recognized as having the skills and knowledge to effectively train and evaluate those in the bird banding community.

​Coming full circle, Ashli and Ryan (along with established trainers and NABC council members, Mark Shieldcastle and Annie Lindsay, and recently certified trainer, Deven Kammerichs-Berke) were able to take part in hosting a BSBO-led NABC certification session at the end of this past May. Of the nine candidates evaluated, four have exclusively trained with Ashli and Ryan in BSBO’s research station, and were ready for the evaluation process. It was great to have BSBO’s training methods put to the test through this NABC certification session, finding out what we (BSBO’s research team) do well as trainers and what we can still improve on. 

​This has been a significant step forward in achieving one of BSBO’s research goals of training and sending out qualified individuals to the bird banding community. And, with one session now under our belts, the BSBO research team is prepared to continue improving our training methods and hosting certification sessions, hoisting BSBO up among the other great organizations promoting the NABC and bettering the bird banding community.  

BSBO's Research department continues to make strides in the scientific and banding community for the betterment of habitats and all wildlife. With the support of our partners, volunteers, members, and advocates, the BSBO research team looks forward to a bright future of continued learning, training, and outreach.

​Well, after a week of raising our boardwalks out of the drink, last week we were finally ready for the research crew and volunteers to enter the marsh and officially commence banding operations. After being in the marsh for a week prior, we already had an idea of the progression of migration and the species we would catch. But we’ve also had some surprises. This season, more than any in recent memory, has been heavy with Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and we’ve been able to band quite a few. Part of this has been the wind and rainy weather driving them down from the canopy and into the range of our mist nets. Speaking of wind, we’ve also captured an American Kestrel and Sharp-shinned Hawk, who on windy days get forced down from the skies and in range of our nets.

As the third week of April began to wane, and Golden-crowned Kinglets and Brown Creepers stopped making appearances, we were in the right time frame to catch some early overflight migrants. These are migrants that typically breed farther south in Ohio, but occasionally get caught up in the overnight winds, overshooting their intended destinations and landing in the lakeshore marshes. Of this group of migrants, we were able to catch a couple of Louisiana Waterthrushes, a Prairie Warbler, and a Pine Warbler (species that are fairly infrequent at the station). 

Even though we were catching birds in the double digits, our first real good day of migration came on Tuesday April 23, when winds shifted to the southwest and we had our first 100-bird-day. With this shift, it was almost as if we were in a whole new marsh! We had our first encounters with Eastern Whip-poor-will, Blue-headed and Warbling Vireo, Scarlet and Summer Tanager, Yellow Warbler, Ovenbird, Hooded Warbler, Northern Parula, and Swainson’s Thrush. And not too long after this we also banded our first Gray Catbird for the season. 

​As random as migration may appear, through years of research by BSBO, we’ve been able to identify the pattern of migration through the region, and establish when and which species will arrive. This pattern-knowledge is further strengthened by an understanding of how weather affects bird movement. Using this combination we are pretty accurate with our predictions and have a good idea of what to expect each day we head in to the marsh. Thus, we were pretty sure (ok… we knew) that Tuesday was going to be a good day. What’s neat about this understanding is that it doesn’t take away from the magic of migration in any way. Understanding the factors that drive birds and being able to predict their arrivals and departures reveals a pattern of the natural world, making the spectacle that is migration even more fascinating and awe inspiring!

As we come to the close of April we are hoping that the old saying is true: "April showers bring May warblers." We have had quite a few days of rain and wind hammer northwest Ohio, and are interested to see how persistent northerly winds have affected the progression of migration through the region (especially as we head towards BSBO's Biggest Week In American Birding). Current weather forecasts indicate that Wednesday and Thursday, the 1st and 2nd, could be suitable days for migration; bringing in more Yellow Warblers, Prothonotary Warblers, and Swainson's Thrushes, among others.       

As long as winter may have felt, the icy winds and snow have quickly faded, and the BSBO research team is back out in the Navarre Marsh, ready to begin operations for the 2019 spring migration season. Well… we were almost ready. With heavy precipitation and strong northerly winds throughout the winter months, the section of marsh the banding station is situated in has been completely inundated by water. We experienced this a bit last year (which aided in catching some of our first-ever Belted Kingfishers), but this year is a whole different level of “flooded.” To best capture birds and sample the movement of different species through the marsh, many of our nets run over boardwalks to get into aquatic habitats such as buttonbush swale. However, the marsh has decided to take these boardwalks for her own and many of them succumbed to the murky waters. For the safety of the birds, volunteers, and staff that work in the station, banding operations could not start until these boardwalks were raised. Thus, a week that could have been spent banding birds and collecting early migration data, was spent waist-deep in the frigid marsh waters, shoving blocks of wood under water-logged boardwalks. Oh what fun!

Normally, the research team heads into the marsh a week before our (amazing) volunteers begin coming out. Generally we take this time to get things set up, work out any kinks, and get ourselves back in the groove of banding birds. Not so much this year. Instead we spent four and half days elevating platforms (in some instances, literally elevating the whole thing out of the water), rebuilding some boardwalks, and constructing extensions to span formerly dry areas. As grueling as it was, we had a pretty fun few days getting to know the marsh bottom and the boardwalks a little better; days filled with laughs, sore muscles, leaky waders, and some good ol’ fashion marsh ingenuity. 

​While we weren’t able to operate during this construction time, we did have any opportunity to receive some new training. In collaboration with Powdermill Avian Research Center and others, BSBO will be affixing radio transmitters to certain species this year as part of a project spanning the Lake Erie shoreline. So while we didn’t get to fully operate the station last week, our research team did learn proper techniques for fitting radio harnesses to birds including sizing, actually fitting a harness to a bird, proper tightness, and positioning. Stay tuned for more on this topic as the season develops! 

Finally, after some long, cold days, loads of lumber, and a couple boxes of screws… we were ready to begin banding on Friday the 12th (with the confidence that our feet and nets would stay dry). From being in the marsh earlier in the week, we could already tell from mere observations that there was definitely some good migrant movement occurring in the region. Even though we were a little late to start sampling birds, on Friday and Saturday we were able to catch some remaining Fox Sparrow, American Tree Sparrow, Slate-colored Junco, and Red-breasted Nuthatch.

With most of these “winter” birds leaving, others have rapidly been replacing them and the marsh has been filled with the sounds of Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, White-throated Sparrow, and Myrtle Warbler. And while not totally unexpected at this time, with shifting winds going into Saturday, we were happily surprised to encounter an Orange-crowned Warbler, White-eyed Vireo, and House Wren. 

​Similarly to last year (but more so this season), it will be interesting to see how water levels in the marsh will affect bird movement and our ability to catch them in this incredible, ever-changing habitat. One thing’s for sure though… we’re ready to have a great season filled with birds, friends, and new opportunities to learn more about the wildlife we study, and how we can continue to apply our research to conservation. Thank you to all those that make this important research possible by volunteering your time, supporting BSBO and its efforts, and promoting science and conservation.

Due to oncoming thunderstorms, rain, heat, and about 150% humidity, our MAPS banding operations at BSBO were cut short a little bit early today. From the little time we did band, however, we were able to gather that more young Yellow Warblers are on the move with their parents, there are already some completely molted (into formative plumage) hatching-year (HY) YEWAs roaming around on their own, and young Gray Catbirds are just starting to leave the nest, still in their complete floofy juvenal plumage. But our best surprise this morning was a bird we don't often have at BSBO during the summer....American Redstart. 

​Without catching young or locating a nest, we can't positively say that AMRE have bred at BSBO this summer. The more likely scenario is that this (and other AMRE we've heard this summer and past summers) are simply un-mated birds moving through the region, or birds that have already fledged young somewhere else and are preparing for migration.

Unlike migration banding, summer banding offers us a glimpse of birds in active molt - a fairly short period in a bird's life cycle. But due to the plumage differences in male AMRE, this bird's molt was exceptionally interesting! 

Male AMRE have delayed plumage maturation, meaning that HY and second-year (SY) birds look completely different than their adult counterparts. In AMRE, young males are gray with yellow accents, gaining minute black splotches by their first spring. Whereas adult males are black with orange accents. This plumage difference always makes aging adult male AMRE simple: if the bird is black and orange in spring, it's an after-second-year (ASY); if its black and orange in the fall, its an after-hatching-year (AHY). During the pre-basic molt in late summer, young males will begin replacing their gray and yellow feathers for black and orange feathers, producing the bird's definitive basic (or adult) plumage. The bird we captured today is undergoing that molt right now, showing off a very unique look during this transitional phase. 

While in active molt, an accurate age can often be difficult to discern, and sometimes we simply have to say that it's an AHY bird (we don't know when it was hatched, but it wasn't this year). But despite being in active molt, due to the species' delayed plumage maturation, we were able to confidently age this male AMRE as an SY (a bird hatched last year). Black feathers in the head, tertials, greater coverts, primary coverts, inner primaries with orange, and rectrices are all recently replaced, basic feathers. The remaining gray/brown back and face feathers, secondaries with yellow, alula, and outer primaries are retained juvenal feathers (formative for the body feathers). If this were an ASY male AMRE, he would be replacing basic feathers for new basic feathers...black and orange feathers, for new black and orange feathers.    

Due to the obvious difference in feather ages, our fingers are crossed that this scruffy lad will stick around the area long enough for us to reacapture him and track his advancement in molt, documenting this often unseen and short lived period. In another week or so, this bird will look completely different than today. Gaining all black feathers with orange accents. Because of the timing of this capture, we've added another point of information to the record of this bird, and subsequent recaptures will keep track of his exact age. And, while he may look a "hot mess," isn't this guy just too cool looking!?   

As we continue to gather and analyze the data from this year's spring banding season, we've been hard at work operating two MAPS stations: One located in the restored oak/dogwood shrub-scrub habitat along the Gallagher trail behind the BSBO headquarters. And the second, in a portion of the Oak Openings Preserve Metropark that encompasses sand dune, oak forest, shrub-scrub, and degraded grassland habitats. 

We are about mid-way through the summer season and have encountered some great birds at both stations including American Woodcock, all the Yellow Warblers at BSBO, Cedar Waxwing, Summer Tanager, Ovenbird, and Lark Sparrow. This is such a great and unique time to work with birds - for a multitude of reasons - but chiefly: compared to migration, the return rate of breeding birds is much higher, allowing us to compare individuals from year to year and hone our aging and sexing skills; and both young and adult birds are molting, allowing us to document the patterns of species and the irregularities of individuals. 

While we would love to write something about each species (and sometimes each bird!) we encounter during the breeding season, there simply isn't enough time or available space on the server to allow for such lengthy posts. However, a few birds each session always tend to catch our eye.         

​This HY Yellow Warbler banded June 25th at BSBO,  has recently left the nest and is still in nearly full juvenal plumage (or first-basic plumage). This first set of body feathers (not often seen in the field) is grown quickly after hatching, providing the young bird with just enough protection and camouflage while it remains in and near the nest. The quality of these feathers is quite low, giving the bird a matte and floofy appearance. After fledging, HY birds will quickly roll into their pre-formative molt, replacing their body feathers and some wing covert feathers (depending on the species). In the case of Yellow Warblers, HY birds will attain higher quality yellow body feathers in their pre-formative molt, giving them the distinct look of the species and separating their plumage as male or female. Because flight feathers are of heavier construction and require more energy to grow (compared to body feathers), many HY birds (including the majority of species of passerine) will retain their juvenal primaries, primary coverts, secondaries, and rectrices through the pre-formative molt, eventually replacing them during the pre-basic molt the following year.

​Caught together at Oak Openings, this (presumed) family group of Tufted Titmouse represent three generations of birds. From left to right we have a third-year male TUTI, an HY TUTI (the presumed offspring), and a second-year female TUTI. Despite being quite similar in appearance, the HY bird is still in full juvenal plumage, showing loose, floofy body feathers, a yellow gape, and a pinkish bill base. Male and female TUTI are identical by plumage, and males will develop a brood patch, making it difficult to sex individual birds. Luckily, these birds were captured together and we were able to differentiate physical breeding signs between the two adult birds, separating them as male and female. Due to the nature of molt, we are only able to accurately age most species of birds we encounter into their second year (as most birds will replace all of their feathers at the end of their second summer, showing a single generation of feathers). The adult male TUTI however, was a recapture, previously banded as a hatching-year bird in 2016, putting him in his third-year of life. Without having been previously banded we would only be able to call him an after-second-year bird (a bird hatched prior to last year), based on his feathers. His feathers can only tell us that he's at least older than a second-year, but his band and the associated data can give us a picture of his movements and life at the Oak Openings station.  

​Over the past 50 years, the Golden-winged Warbler has seen one of the sharpest population declines of any songbird species, and is in consideration for Endangered Species classification. The expansion of the Blue-winged Warbler and hybridization with Golden-wingeds has been identified as a contributing factor to the decline in GWWA numbers. However, the primary threat (as well as to a number of other species) is habitat loss both on the breeding grounds in North America and wintering grounds in Central and South America.

Due to high precipitation and strong north-easterly winds this past winter, the marsh is pretty...well….marshy. Much of the station has higher than average water levels and muck boots are a requirement to reach some of the nets. But due to this high water level, we have doubled another species’ capture record (going from one ever caught, to two captured in a week): Belted Kingfisher. Kingfishers generally don’t enter the marsh too often, but with high water levels near the nets, we were perfectly poised to catch them as they darted through openings in the buttonbush. ​

Text and photo by BSBO Passerine Research Technician, Arthur Sanchez Jr.

The above cases represent only a few of the trend patterns we observe in the birds we study and some of the factors that may affect these species each fall. The importance of tracking these birds consistently, annually, and over the long term cannot be overstated for helping us understand how overall bird populations are faring and what factors affect bird populations. Banding birds gives us reliable and extensive empirical data to this end, data that surveys or field observations cannot provide. By combining our banding effort with consistent survey results, our data become even stronger and more robust, and paint a better, truer picture of fluctuations and trends in the bird populations we so dearly care for. It becomes an essential piece of the conservation puzzle, as only when armed with this basic information can we begin to open the door to conversations about bird conservation.​

As we reflect back on another successful fall banding season we give thanks to the birds that provide us a window into the health of our ecosystems and serve to lift our spirits. Scientifically and spiritually, birds take us to new heights and no matter how many Red-winged Blackbirds we see or how many Swainson’s Thrushes we have the privilege of examining up close, we never lose sight of how important these individual birds are to birders, researchers, and the ecosystems we work to protect.